Interpreter Gary Ford, a retired school teacher, spends most of his time as an 1800s schoolmaster inside the one-room schoolhouse in Meadowcroft’s 19th-century village. He also spends time interacting with school groups in the Monongahela Indian Village and dipping candles in the King House. Now that Meadowcroft’s 50th season has ended, we caught up with Ford to learn what it’s like interpreting history for visitors from around the region and around the world.

The Meadowcroft Rockshelter is a National Historic Landmark and a remarkable archaeological site which documents the presence of prehistoric people in Western Pennsylvania for at least the last 16,000 years. Here are the top 10 features of the site.

The land on which Camp Meadowcroft developed into Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village has its own fascinating history. Albert and Delvin’s grandfather T.A. Miller sold about 350 acres of the southeastern corner of the Bancroft farm and its mineral contents to the Jefferson Coal Company around 1920.